Note 273 — Chapter IX · The State.

In 1275–6 Alexander II., and subsequently, in 1372, Robert II. confirmed a grant by which Niel, Earl of Carrick, had conferred upon Roland de Carrick, “ut ipse et heredes sui sint capud tocius progenie sue, tam in calumpniis quam aliis articulis et negotiis ad Kenkynoll pertinere valentibus,” with the office of Bailliary (Seneschalship) of the Earldom of Carrick, and “the leading of the men thereof,” under the earl and his heirs (Robertson’s Index, 134. 6). The earldom went to Niel’s grandson, Robert Bruce. So MacDougal of Dunolly, the male heir of the de Ergadia family, was hereditary Bailie of Lorn. “The MacDuff” seems also to have been the next of kin to the Earl of Fife for the time being. The office of Tanist must have become obsolete when the heir was declared by the Probi homines of the Visnet instead of by the Kin. A royal grant, very similar to that of the Earl of Carrick, was in one celebrated case the cause of a feud lasting for centuries. As the Toshach seems originally to have been the second personage in the clan, so the Senior often appears to have monopolized the ecclesiastical preferment. The kings of the MacAlpin race were Cowarbs of St. Andrews; of the Atholl family, Cowarbs of Dunkeld; the Earls of Ross were descended from “Mac-in-Sagart”—the priest’s son—and it is highly probable that the older chiefs of Clan Chattan and representatives of Gillie-Chattan-More were also “Cowarbs of St. Chattan.” When the clan, after the breaking up of the confederacy of Donald Balloch, made its peace with the king, the headship was, for some unknown reason, conferred, not on the Senior, but the Toshach, and accordingly a constant state of hostility existed between the Captain of Clan Chattan by royal grant—“the Mac-in-Toshach”—and the claimant of the chieftainship by right of blood—“the Mac-in-Pherson,” filius personæ, or son of the Cowarb. The Macphersons are neither mentioned amongst the “Landislordis and Bailies,” nor “the Roll of Clans” appended to “the General Band;” but only amongst “the brokin men of the surname of Macinpherson.” (Col. de Reb. Alb., p. 35, et seq.) Nothing but the tenacity with which the “old Clan Chattan” clung to their “chiefe” (do., p. 207) could have prevented a family, representing, probably, the ancient line of MacHeth, from sinking to the condition of Og-tiernach under a junior branch.